Saw "Curse of the Golden Flower" last night with hubby. The visuals and the attention to details were amazing. I was suddenly pulled into a life that was really rigid and so full of rituals. I enjoyed the movie because of the visuals and the built-up tension it showed. I felt like sitting on the edge of my sofa, anticipating the climax...wondering where the story would take me.
I wonder, though, why are there so many movies with this kind of ending? The ending reminds me of my feeling when I watched "Hero" and "Raise the Red Lantern", and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." All of these movies are Zhang Yimou's movies, btw.
Here's the trailer of "Curse of the Golden Flower":
Some of the visual beauties in "Curse of the Golden Flower" reminded me of some scenes in "Hero", just like in this one (the fight scene starts at 1:00):
Whenever I check out movies in imdb site, I always like clicking on trivia part. Do you know how long it takes to shoot the above fighting scene?
Here's the answer:
"The lake scenes took almost three weeks to film because the director insisted that the lake's surface had to be perfectly still and mirror-like during filming. Due to the natural currents, this occurred every day for only two hours starting at 10am. To adjust to this phenomenon, the filmmakers arose at 5am each day to begin five hours of preparation and set-up."
And I bet many people still remember the lovely fight scene among bamboo trees in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon":
And while reading this trivia page, I chuckled upon finding these sentences:
"Concerned that Western audiences would not be able to tell Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro apart in the beginning of the film as they are dressed similarly, Yimou Zhang had Kaneshiro's character eat peanuts throughout many of the opening scenes to distinguish them."
That paragraph describes R2's feelings whenever he watches this kind of martial arts movies. He says that he enjoys watching Asian martial arts movies, but sometimes in movies that are fast-paced, he loses track on the characters he he he he he...
Anyway, I think among those four movies, I still enjoy "Curse of the Golden Flower" more than the others, but for some reason "Raise the Red Lantern" has left the deepest mark in my heart.
Haven't seen Curse of the Golden Flower, but have seen (and loved) all the others. I told Rami we should watch Hero at some point, we did, and said he disliked it because of the "flying" that goes on...personally, I think it looks awesome, and I'm willing to suspend disbelief. :)
ReplyDeleteHE HE HE HE...I grew up watching this kind of martial arts series, so I find it to be "the norm". Just like watching Superman or something like that hi hi...
DeleteOh yes, I have to admit (very sheepishly) that I'm one of those white Westerners who (despite more than 10 years living in Japan) sometimes has trouble telling Asians apart, and it cracked me up to read that detail about the peanuts!
ReplyDeleteThen again, now that I think about it I have the same problem telling some white Caucasian actors apart in movies. And actresses. Hmm. Do I have face-recognition dyslexia or something?! :)
I also have trouble with white Westerners (when I was helping out at the daycare I had a hard time at first to tell some of the kids apart!), but I think I can still manage to set Asian actors/actresses apart (at least so far).
Deleteoh wow... Raise the Red Lantern's my favourite too. Umm... favourite as in it moved me the most, not as in happiest watching!
ReplyDeleteHi, M!
DeleteYou love it too, eh? Yeah, not the happiest watching indeed, but it really makes you feel so much, eh? :-D